The Gatsby Leaflet Starter is a boilerplate for building static sites with interactive maps, combining Gatsby, Leaflet, React Leaflet, and OpenStreetMap into a single starter template.
What is the Gatsby Leaflet Starter?
The Gatsby Leaflet Starter is a Gatsby starter that initializes a site with an interactive map powered by Leaflet and OpenStreetMap. It is bootstrapped from the gatsby-starter-leaflet project by Colby Fayock and maintained by Eka Prasetia. The starter uses React Leaflet to wrap Leaflet's map API as React components, so the map renders inside a Gatsby React application. The project uses Yarn for dependency management and includes Sass for styling, making it a ready-to-run starting point for map-centric Gatsby sites.
Key Features
- Gatsby — Static site generator that compiles the project into HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for fast page loads.
- Leaflet — JavaScript library for interactive maps that handles tile loading, panning, and zooming.
- React Leaflet — React components that wrap Leaflet, allowing maps to be declared as React elements with props.
- OpenStreetMap — Default tile provider that supplies the base map imagery without an API key.
- Sass — CSS preprocessor included for writing styles with variables, nesting, and mixins.
- React Helmet — Component for managing document head metadata, enabling per-page SEO tags.
- Resolve Src — Gatsby plugin that simplifies imports from the src directory by resolving paths automatically.
- Yarn — Package manager used to install dependencies and run scripts.
Who is it for?
Developers who want a quick starting point for a Gatsby site with a map. Web designers who need an interactive map without configuring Leaflet from scratch. Anyone learning React Leaflet or Gatsby who wants a minimal working example.
What can you do with the Gatsby Leaflet Starter?
- Map enthusiasts: Build a personal site with a full-window map centered on a chosen location using OpenStreetMap tiles.
- Developers: Use as a scaffold for a map-based web app, then extend with Leaflet markers, popups, and geolocation features.
- Portfolio sites: Embed an interactive map as a visual element, styled with Sass, in a Gatsby project.
